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Dynamic modulation of ocular orientation during visually guided saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements.

Rotational disturbances of the head about an off-vertical yaw axis induce a complex vestibuloocular reflex pattern that reflects the brain's estimate of head angular velocity as well as its estimate of instantaneous head orientation (at a reduced scale) in space coordinates. We show that semicircular canal and otolith inputs modulate torsional and, to a certain extent, also vertical ocular orientation of visually guided saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements in a similar manner as during off-vertical axis rotations in complete darkness. It is suggested that this graviceptive control of eye orientation facilitates rapid visual spatial orientation during motion.

Animals↗

[Spatial positional orientation in deaf-mute individuals with bilateral vestibular areflexia].

Ten deaf-mute subjects with total vestibular areflexia were subjected to positional tests, i.e. assessment of the postural subjective vertical and horizontal plane by deviations in the frontal and sagittal plane. The tests were performed in the author's modification of a Grahe table. Comparison with the results of 10 healthy subjects revealed that extinction of vestibular activity increases the inaccuracy of assessment of the body position in space. The conclusion is: the vestibular (otolith) apparatus supplements and makes the activity of all other gravireceptors more accurate but not hold a dominant place among them.

Adolescent↗

The effects of opposite-polarity dipoles on the detection of Glass patterns.

Glass patterns--randomly positioned coherently orientated dipoles--create a strong sensation of oriented spatial structure. On the other hand, coherently oriented dipoles comprising dots of opposite polarity ("anti-Glass" patterns) have no distinct spatial structure and are very hard to distinguish from random noise. Although anti-Glass patterns have no obvious spatial structure themselves, their presence can destroy the structure created by Glass patterns. We measured the strength of this effect for both static and dynamic Glass patterns, and showed that anti-Glass patterns can raise thresholds for Glass patterns by a factor of 2-4, increasing with density. The dependence on density suggests that the interactions occur at a local level. When the Glass and anti-Glass dipoles were confined to alternate strips (in translational and circular Glass patterns), the detrimental effect occurred for stripe widths less than about 1.5 degrees, but had little effect for larger stripe widths, reinforcing the suggestion that the interaction occurred over a limited spatial extent. The extent of spatial interaction was much less than that for spatial summation of these patterns, at least 30 degrees under matched experimental conditions. The results suggest two stages of analysis for Glass patterns, an early stage of limited spatial extent where orientation is extracted, and a later stage that sums these orientation signals.

Humans↗

Sex of player and practice in lateral discrimination and videogame performance.

Videogame sessions stimulating surrogate travel were used as navigational training for four days. Four paper-and-pencil measures were obtained to identify characteristics underlying acquisition of navigational skill. These included a map reading test to assess spatial orientation, a self-report questionnaire (Spatial Anxiety Scale) and two orientation tasks requiring discrimination of compass directions and relative position, i.e., right-left. Game performance was related to both scores on spatial anxiety and right-left discrimination. Skill acquisition curves did not differ for the 8 men and 13 women.

Discrimination, Psychological↗

Orientation bandwidths of spatial mechanisms measured by masking.

Orientation tuning curves were measured at 10 spatial frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 11.3 cycles per degree (cpd) using a masking paradigm. The stimuli were spatially localized test patterns of 1.0 octave bandwidth superimposed upon cosine grating masks. By using a model that corrects for the nonlinearity inherent in the masking process, we obtain the half-amplitude half-bandwidths (theta 1/2) of Cartesian-separable receptive fields that may underlie orientation selectivity. Additional experiments show that the data are not compatible with separability in polar coordinates (spatial frequency and orientation). The orientation half-bandwidths have been found to decrease somewhat with increasing spatial frequency, going from about 30 degrees at 0.5 cpd to 15 degrees at 11.3 cpd, for both sustained and transient forms of temporal modulation. Similar bandwidths are obtained from data where the test is oriented along 45 degrees. These bandwidth estimates are shown to be consistent with subthreshold summation data as well as physiological data from monkey striate cortex.

Animals↗

Direct evidence for the existence of energy-based texture mechanisms.

Two classes of models have been proposed to explain how the visual system processes texture modulations. In 'feature models', abstract representations of the featural properties of local texture regions (eg orientation, spatial frequency, contrast) are first generated, after which differences in individual feature properties across space are detected. In 'energy models', on the other hand, differences across space in the response energies of linear simple-cell-like filters are detected. This model thus processes the existing differences between texture regions directly without generating a full representation of the individual texture regions. We provide here direct evidence for the existence of the second, energy model, using an adaptation paradigm in conjunction with textures simultaneously modulated in two dimensions--orientation and spatial frequency. We found that the mechanism that processed the conjoint modulation was tuned to orientations and spatial frequencies that could not be predicted by any feature model, but which were precisely predicted by the energy model.

Differential Threshold↗

Scopolamine-induced deficits in acquisition of a complex spatial learning.

The role of scopolamine was studied in a complex spatial orientation task. The procedure involved an increasing difficulty of the task: at the pretraining stage a cue (box) was placed at the reinforcement spot and the animal could give a correct response by adopting either a cue-strategy or an orientation response (i.e., go to the arm on the right of a visual landmark). In the subsequent spatial training, the box was removed, so that the orientation response was the only correct one. Results show that scopolamine-injected animals are able to use a cue-strategy but are unable to acquire a spatial orientation strategy: this more complex task asks for more time and for more sustained attention. When the response is already partly acquired, scopolamine has less effect. The cholinergic system would thus be involved in the quality or even the complexity of the response rather than in the retention itself. Though a state-dependent effect may not be excluded, it by itself cannot explain the observed differences. Finally, an impairment of the maintenance of attention could be responsible for the deficits observed in the acquisition of the complex task.

Animals↗

Stereoscopic depth perception from oblique phase disparities.

In order to understand the role of oblique retinal image disparities in the perception of stereoscopic depth, we measured the depth perceived from random dot stereograms in which phase disparities were introduced in a selected band of stimulus orientations. A band of orientation was defined by a center orientation that ranged from 7.5 (near vertical) to 82.5 o[rientation]deg and by a bandwidth that was defined as the difference between the highest and the lowest orientation in the band. The bandwidths tested were 15, 30 and 45 odeg. A constant phase disparity of 90 p[hase]deg was introduced in all of the oriented spatial frequency components within the orientation band and the perceived depth of each stimulus was matched using a small square binocular probe. For each bandwidth, perceived depth increased with an increase in the center orientation up to approximately 60 odeg. This suggests that the human stereovision system derives a large proportion of information about perceived stereoscopic depth from oblique phase disparities. Simulations using an energy model of stereoscopic depth perception indicate that oblique phase disparities are unlikely to be processed by neural mechanisms tuned to near-vertical orientations within the stimulus. Our results therefore suggest that oblique retinal disparities are initially detected as oblique phase disparities by binocular mechanisms tuned to oblique orientations. Because the perceived depth from oblique phase disparities is consistent with the trigonometrically determined equivalent horizontal disparities, we presume that the information from oblique phase disparities is included in the visual system's computation of the horizontal retinal disparity.

Analysis of Variance↗

Processing of second-order stimuli in the visual cortex.

Naturally occurring visual stimuli are rich in examples of objects delineated from their backgrounds simply by differences in luminance, so-called first-order stimuli, as well as those defined by differences of contrast or texture, referred to as second-order stimuli. Here we provide a brief overview of visual cortical processing of second-order stimuli, as well as some comparative background on first-order processing, concentrating on single-unit neurophysiology, but also discussing relationships to human psychophysics and to neuroimaging. The selectivity of visual cortical neurons to orientation, spatial frequency, and direction of movement of first-order, luminance-defined stimuli is conventionally understood in terms of simple linear filter models, albeit with some minor nonlinearities such as thresholding and gain control. However, these kinds of models fail entirely to account for responses of neurons to second-order stimuli such as contrast envelopes, illusory contours, or texture borders. Second-order stimuli constructed from sinusoidal components have been used to analyze the neurophysiological mechanisms of such responses; these experiments demonstrate that the same neuron can exhibit three distinct kinds of tuning to spatial frequency, and also to orientation. These results can be understood in terms of a type of nonlinear 'filter-->rectify-->filter' model, which has been widely used in human psychophysics. Finally, several general issues will be discussed, including potential artifacts in experiments with second-order stimuli, and strategies for avoiding or controlling for them; caveats about definitions of first- vs. second-order mechanisms and stimuli; the concept of form-cue invariance; and the functional significance of second-order processing.

Animals↗

Receptive fields and functional architecture of macaque V2.

1. Visual area V2 of macaque monkey cerebral cortex is the largest of the extrastriate visual areas, yet surprisingly little is known of its neuronal properties. We have made a quantitative analysis of V2 receptive field properties. Our set of measurements was chosen to distinguish neuronal responses reflecting parvocellular (P) or magnocellular (M) inputs and to permit comparison with similar measurements made in other visual areas; we further describe the relationship of those properties to the laminar and cytochrome oxidase (CO) architecture of V2. 2. We recorded the activity of single units representing the central 5 degrees in all laminae and CO divisions of V2 in anesthetized, paralyzed macaque monkeys. We studied responses to geometric targets and to drifting sinusoidal gratings that varied in orientation, spatial frequency, drift rate, contrast, and color. 3. The orientation selectivity and spatial and temporal tuning of V2 neurons differed little from those in V1. As in V1, spatial and temporal tuning in V2 appeared separable, and we identified a population of simple cells (more common within the central 3 degrees) similar to those found in V1. Contrast sensitivity of V2 neurons was greater on average than in V1, perhaps reflecting the summation of inputs in V2's larger receptive fields. Many V2 neurons exhibited some degree of chromatic opponency, responding to isoluminant color variations, but these neurons differed from V1 in the linearity with which they summate cone signals. 4. In agreement with others, we found that neurons with selective responses to color, size, and motion did seem to cluster in different CO compartments. However, this segregation of qualitatively different response selectivities was not absolute, and response properties also seemed to depend on laminar position within each compartment. As others also have noted, we found that CO stripe widths in the macaque (unlike in the squirrel monkey) did not consistently appear different. We relied on the segregation of qualitatively distinct cell types, and in some cases the pattern of Cat-301 staining as well, to distinguish CO stripes when the staining pattern of CO alone was ambiguous. Although all cell types were found in all CO compartments and laminae, unoriented cells were more prominent in layers 2-4 of "thin" stripes, direction-selective cells in layers 3B/4 of "thick" stripes, color-selective cells in the upper layers of thin and pale stripes, and end-stopped cells mainly outside of layer 4 in thin stripes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗

Perceived orientation in physical and virtual environments: changes in perceived orientation as a function of idiothetic information available.

Two experiments examined perceived spatial orientation in a small environment as a function of experiencing that environment under three conditions: real-world, desktop-display (DD), and head-mounted display (HMD). Across the three conditions, participants acquired two targets located on a perimeter surrounding them, and attempted to remember the relative locations of the targets. Subsequently, participants were tested on how accurately and consistently they could point in the remembered direction of a previously seen target. Results showed that participants were significantly more consistent in the real-world and HMD conditions than in the DD condition. Further, it is shown that the advantages observed in the HMD and real-world conditions were not simply due to nonspatial response strategies. These results suggest that the additional idiothetic information afforded in the real-world and HMD conditions is useful for orientation purposes in our presented task domain. Our results are relevant to interface design issues concerning tasks that require spatial search, navigation, and visualization.

Adolescent↗

Energy model for contrast detection: spatial-frequency and orientation selectivity in grating summation.

Models of spatial vision usually assume a "front-end" of spatial-frequency and orientation selective channels. Subthreshold-summation studies have provided some of the strongest support for this notion. We applied a single-channel energy model and a multiple-channels probability-summation model to explore subthreshold-summation phenomena. We measured the contrast thresholds for detection of two superimposed Gabor patches as a function of the spatial-frequency and orientation difference between the components. The stimuli were centred 7.5 deg above the fixation point and were windowed by a Gaussian function with one of two different spatial spreads. We have shown that the spatial-frequency and orientation selectivity in subthreshold summation of Gabor patches is determined by the similarity (cross-correlation) between the stimulus components. A single-channel energy model as well as a multiple-channels probability-summation model could explain the summation data.

Contrast Sensitivity↗

Visual attention abnormalities in autism: delayed orienting to location.

These studies provide evidence for slowed spatial orienting of attention in autism. A group of well-defined adult autistic subjects and age-matched normal controls performed a traditional spatial cueing task in which attention-related response facilitation is indexed by speed of target detection. To address the concern that motor impairment may interfere with interpretation of response time measures in those with neurologic abnormality, we also used a new adaptation of the traditional task that depended on accuracy of response (target discrimination) rather than speed of response. This design allowed separation of time to process and respond to target information from the time to move and engage (orient) attention. Results from both tasks were strikingly similar. Normal subjects oriented attention very quickly, and showed maximal performance facilitation at a cued location within 100 ms. Autistic subjects oriented attention much more slowly and showed increasing benefits of a spatial cue with increasing cue-to-target delays. These results are consistent with previous reports that patients with autism, the majority of whom have developmental abnormalities of the cerebellum, as well as those with acquired damage to the cerebellum, are slow to shift attention between and within modalities. This paper also addresses the variability in behavioral findings in autism, and suggests that many of the apparently contradictory findings may actually reflect sampling differences in patterns of brain pathology.

Adolescent↗

The inertia tensor as a basis for the perception of limb orientation.

The ability of humans to perceive the spatial orientation of an occluded arm was investigated. It was hypothesized that this ability is tied to the arm's inertial eigenvectors, invariant mechanical parameters corresponding to a limb's axes of rotational symmetry. By breaking the coincidence between the eigenvectors of the arm and its longitudinal axis, 3 experiments were directed at the possibility that the perceived orientation of an occluded arm would vary as a function of the eigenvectors. Overall, the angles in which the arm was positioned were affected by the direction in which the eigenvectors of the limb were oriented by small appended masses. Discussion focused on the importance of physical invariants for proprioception.

Adult↗

Standardized visual overlays enhance laparoscopic instruction: A mixed-methods evaluation.

Effective communication during laparoscopic procedures is frequently undermined by spatial disorientation and inconsistent terminology between instructors and trainees. This study examined whether standardized visual overlays on endoscopic monitors could enhance communication and learning. We conducted a three-phase mixed-methods study: qualitative observation of 20 laparoscopic teaching cases; a randomized trial of 63 second-year medical students assigned to control, clock, or alphanumeric grid (AG) overlays during three trials of a standardized transfer task; and intraoperative implementation in 44 cases (30 AG, 14 clock) with post-case surveys and qualitative feedback. In simulation, the clock overlay produced the fastest completion times, whereas the AG yielded the lowest error scores, and both overlays outperformed the control. Intraoperatively, the AG was rated higher than the clock for communication clarity, spatial orientation, perceived operative efficiency, and trainee confidence. Standardized visual overlays, particularly the AG, appear to support intraoperative teaching by providing a shared spatial frame of reference.

Laparoscopy↗